Behind Ember Eyes
by Peanut Launcher For Bears
Summary: Of all the guys I've known, he's never made me feel more safe, and insecure. More ugly, and beautiful. More sure, and doubtful. And I wouldn't change it for the world. KaixOC and an Alternate Universe
1. Preface

_Behind Ember Eyes_

_~A Kai and OC story~_

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In my opinion, death wasn't something I concerned myself with.

I thought I was too young to die. Yet here I am, starring death in the eyes.

Of course, I think my life turned out alright. Sure, it wasn't the greatest, and maybe my life seemed a bit robbed of hope.

But only the Earth endures, we all die sometime right?

His footsteps echoed as he approached closer to me.

It was fun while it lasted.


	2. Chapter 1

**Greetings one and all!**

**Thanks for coming this far, this is my time to warn you of a few things about this story:**

**1) This story is written as a Kai and OC story. If you don't like it, don't read it.**

**2) This is an Alternate Universe taken place with the Beyblade characters in college. Again, if you don't like it, don't read it.**

**If you're still interested then I will let you continue.**

**Enjoy!**

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_Behind Ember Eyes_

_~A Kai and OC story~_

Plopping down onto my now naked bed, I sighed a long exasperated breath. Who knew I could pack a whole room in only two days?

I looked around the room that had once been my sanctuary away from life itself. Now, it looked like a naked skeleton of its past glory.

After looking out my window and checking out the clock on my phone, I decided now was a good time to prepare for tonight. Tonight was an important night after all.

Tala. The name used to flutter on my tongue like an exotic dancer. It's hard to believe we've been dating for over a year now. When I first met him, Tala was quite the angry child. Constantly giving strangers the cold shoulder and glaring at people for no reason. Socially he was shunned and I suppose that's what attracted me to him in the first place. One day, I simply conversed with him. After much prodding and inquiries, he gave me more than one word responses. His attitude towards others changed and we dated almost a year after that.

I was always attracted to his inner beauty. Through that shield and anger he fronted with, was a lonely child who wanted acceptance and acknowledgement. His soft smile he'd show only to me, or his musical laugh he'd display. I can truly say this past year changed my life.

I glanced into my closet and saw one last article hanging. A blue dress, to be worn tonight.

Tonight, the night I have to break up with Tala.

Tomorrow, I'm moving to live on campus at a college over 1,000 miles away. Practically speaking, a long distance relationship can't last the distance. I truly do love him, but I don't think I'm in love with him enough to chain myself down. My future is ahead of me.

I walked over to my closet to grab the blue dress. He said to dress nicely and I figured if I'm going to dump the poor guy, I should go in style.

I entered the bathroom and closed the door.

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...

A rasping knock was heard at the door.

"Sophia, I believe it's for you!" My father called in his proud voice. He always did approve of my seeing Tala.

"Could you get it, I'll be down in a minute." I could hear his low chuckle as I continued to rummage through my stuff. Why, I'll never figure out, did I decide to pack all of my important date tools away? I simply needed one jacket!

There was hardly anytime for this. I decided to skip out on the jacket. With one last quick look in my bathroom mirror, I deemed myself worthy of a date.

I began walking down the stairs. There sat my father and Tala watching something on TV. I'll never understand men and their obsession with that particular electronic device.

Tala sensed my presence almost instantly and got up. He flashed his small smile and I felt my heart skip a beat.

"My god Sophia, you look absolutely beautiful." He let out in a whisper. Approaching me, he bent down to lightly peck my lips.

"I want her back before the sun rises!" My father yelled over the TV.

"Dad!" With that, my father let out another low chuckle.

"She'll be back and safe before you know it Mr. Jennings" Tala responded. He then put his hand on my shoulder and led me out of the front door.

The cold breeze nipped at my face as we headed in the direction of his car.

"So where is this fancy place you're taking me to?" I uttered as he smirked a bit.

"You'll find out."

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...

Bangkok Siam, La Pettie Cafe, heck even Marie Calenders. All of which, I'd consider fancy. But the Blue Garden?! That's fancy! Though the restaurant itself wasn't too far from home, I never had the chance to even consider venturing here. My dress hardly seems to do the place justice. Even ordering the food, I felt fancy rattling the names off on my mouth.

Although, the way Tala stares at me gives me the goosebumps.

I shivered and Tala took note of my action.

"Here," he stood up and started to take off his white tuxedo jacket.

"Oh Tala, I'm alright, really!" Though my words seemed to fall on deaf ears. He wrapped the jacket snugly around my shoulders. "Thanks"

He sat back down as the food arrived. We politely thanked our server for the food. Trying to avoid Tala's gaze, I fixated my attention on the food.

...

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...

My plate had been cleaned of practically any hint of food, yet Tala seemed to hardly have made a dent in his own. The boy in front of me hardly spoke a conversation other that whimsical comments on the restaurant. I began to worry. I was afraid of him being in a fragile state of mind.

"Tala," I hesitated, "Is everything alright?"

"Hm?" He barely acknowledged. This response didn't seem to help matters.

"You seem a little," I continued to look at the empty plate in front of me, "Distracted." Distracted seemed to be the least of my worries. Why did he decide to come to this fancy restaurant tonight? What were his motives? I knew he never took action without reason.

"Well," he stated, "I have a lot on my mind."

"Oh," Was the best I could come up with. This is bad. He seems to be in a frame of mind that he hides from others. The kind he's afraid of showing. The kind he wouldn't dare show in case he were to be thought of as weak. The kind he shows only around me when he is about to tell me something serious.

The silence continued.

He already stated that he loves me. We're past that now, so what could be so important?

I can't think like this now. I need to concentrate on how I'm going to end this.

"About us." Tala stated, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," I murmured in a less than enthusiastic tone, "me too."

"Sophia-" I can't let him finish. I can't bear whatever he's going to say. I can't reject him after he's said something that's obviously important to him.

I have to get this over with now.

"Tala," I cut him off, "I'm going to be moving on campus for college." I started with. I didn't know how I should go about this conversation; I should have planned this.

"Right, I know that." He seemed to tense a bit, but I could feel his gaze intensify. Of course he would never state anything about my rudeness. He was to kind for that. Why did this have to be so painful?

"And, we're going to be so far away." I finally glanced at him to see his dark eyes on me. He shifted in his seat and moved his legs.

Now or never, I have to do this. Get it done with, and I'll never have to face this again!

"Sophia, I-"

"This can't work!" I finally blurted out clinching my eyes shut. "Tala,"

I finally gazed at him.

Hurt

Sadness

Pain

Torture

Suffering

And a child, the very child I loved, in _pain_.

I dashed for the exit and never looked back.

Tala tightened his grip on the little black box holding the symbolic piece of jewelry.

...

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...

"We'll miss you Sophia," My mother called with tears welling up in her eyes. I embraced her tightly and looked at my father. He nodded and I embraced him as well.

"I'll be home for the holidays so don't miss me too much." I hoped into my car full of all my belongings and waved farewell to my parents.

I reached the highway as tears rolled down my face.

Tears turned into sobs and I hardly could keep my eyes on the road.

Glancing at the white jacket next to me, I sobbed to a familiar name.

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**Yes, this story starts off with Tala, but we'll see Kai in our next chapter.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Your opinions are appreciated!**

**~PLB**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hello all!**

**Thank you for coming this far into my story! Here's some warnings in case you missed them.**

**1) This story is written as a Kai and OC story. If you don't like it, don't read it.**

**2) This is an Alternate Universe taken place with the Beyblade characters in college. Again, if you don't like it, don't read it.**

**3) I don't own Beyblade or its characters. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfics about it.**

**Now that that is taken care of, I just have to say I'm shocked at how many people have looked at this story. I'm truly shocked at how many people are still interested in this show. Even better, I'm amazed at how many people are interested in this pairing. Thank you so much for checking out my story! Without further ado-**

**Enjoy!**

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I don't consider myself as a shy person. Neither really extroverted nor introverted, but not a turtle of a person. When it came to new ideas, I was open-minded. When it came to meeting new people, I was friendly.

When it came to college, that was different.

I felt completely out of my element. Pennsbroke University's population consisted of mostly local residents.

Translation: This school's social life was just an elevated version of the local high school.

Now why is that an issue? Most the students here are probably familiar with the campus, familiar with the teachers, and familiar with each other.

I never feared meeting new people, but then again, I've never been out of my element this badly.

"Ugh," I groaned sinking into my car seat even more. The student's were talking to one another and already conversing about school.

Begrudgingly, I opened the door to my car and took a step outside. I popped open the trunk of the vehicle and took a few stacked boxes and closed the trunk with my arm.

Laughter could be heard from all corners of the area. My stomach churned as I uneasily walked up the steps of my soon to be home. Luckily, I already knew where my dorm was and only needed a key from the front desk.

I glanced at the front desk and instantly knew this would take a while. There looked to be two, maybe three workers total trying to deal with the hoard of kids around. After setting my boxes down, I began to formulate a plan to sooner my unpacking.

Fact: My roommate was a girl.

Fact: My room was 318.

With those two pieces of information, I could easily figure out where my roommate was and see if they already had a key. Better yet, I could see if they were already in the room.

I located the stairs and began my exercise. The sound of the new student's conversation and laughter echoed and bounced off the walls. It seemed that the further the students conversation went, the slower they walked. The slower they walked, the heavier the boxes seemed.

Finally, I made my way out of the abyss of lost teens and made my way to the hallway of the three-hundred rooms. I was faced with room 315 and moved to the right where the numbers increased.

"315, 317, so 318 is across," I trailed and turned to find an open door. "Thank heavens." I murmured and ventured into the small room. I saw a figure nonchalantly humming and opening up some bags of hers. Deciding to make an entrance, I set my boxes down with a 'thump'. The girl turned toward me and smiled.

"You must me my roommate, my name is Hilary!" She cheerily said extending her slender hand in my direction.

"Sophia," I stated accepting her handshake with a small smile. My nerves seemed to calm down slightly as I tried to strike a conversation with Hilary, "So, are you taking top bunk?"

"Well, I was actually waiting until you showed up to decide that," she peered at the bed elevated the highest off the ground for a moment, and continued, "Would you mind if I took the top?"

"Not at all!" I stated, relieved at the simplicity of the conversation. I picked up my boxes and set them toward the bed and glanced at the top bunk. Hilary already set her belongings there and I realized her previous motives.

I finally took a glance at the small room. It wasn't until just now that I saw the posters with a specific name on all of them.

"If you don't mind me asking," I said with a slightly questionable tone, "who is this Hiwatari?"

"Who is he?" Hilary questioned in a bewildered voice. She spun around to face me in utter shock, "You've never heard of Hiwatari products?"

My face grew uncomfortable, "guilty."

"Well, I suppose that's okay," she deducted with whatever reasoning she came up with in her head, "after all, it's not _that_ famous of a company." I awkwardly shifted my body. Having no clue what to say next, I awaited Hilary's next words. "Well, it's a company that's like a household name. They produce items ranging from furniture and household appliances to children's toys."

"Oh," was all I could muster up. The mood in the room seemed to change to a more serious emotion.

I truly couldn't think of why someone would deem a name worth of a poster. Maybe she wanted to work for a company such as this. Of course it could always represent some crush she had on someone of the Hiwatari name. Frivoulous thoughts like that were supposed to stay in high school though so I brushed that notion off.

"Do you need any help carrying your stuff?" Hilary stated breaking my thoughts, "I'm practically done unpacking."

"Actually, yeah, that'd be nice," Hilary smiled at me and I murmured a, "thanks!"

We exited the room and Hilary began talking about the school. Apparently, she was a local and, as I had guessed, she had a group of local friends as well.

"I'm the only girl of the group," she stated as if she were disappointed, "so it's nice to talk to someone that's not a boy."

"Um," frankly speaking, I didn't know how to respond to that. Apparently, I was already a part of her group, "Thanks."

As we reached my car, Hilary stopped dead in her tracks. I began to unlock it until I noticed her sudden action.

"Hilary," I hesitated, "is everything okay?

"THAT'S your CAR?" She exclaimed as if it were the most hideous thing she ever saw.

I sighed learning quickly about the new girl.

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...

...

With Hilary's instruction's, I found my way toward the English department. After locating my classroom, I took a seat towards the middle. After only a few moments, a boy with the same blonde hair as mine sat next to me.

"I hope this seat is not taken," He spoke in a cheery voice.

"It is now," He smiled and began unpacking a few of his belongings, "I'm Sophia."

"And I'm Max," He extended a hand and I shook it politely, "it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Sophia."

The professor seemed to be nowhere in sight so most of the students began talking. I decided to talk with my newly founded friend in hopes that my nervousness from before had disappeared.

"So, why did you decide to enroll in this class?" I asked with a slight inclination of my head. This was no beginners class after all as it required a placement test.

"Well, for a number of reasons," he began, "I'm half Japanese and half American, and it's always good to further you knowledge on the heritage of your language."

"Wow, I would never have guessed." I gaped.

"Yeah, well, I get that a lot," he replied scratching the back of his head, "And also because I aspire to become an interpreter or some sort of translator. You know, bring both my roots into my future." He turned his head in embarrassment, "It sounds kinda silly I know, but-"

"No way, I think that's a great idea!" Max turned his head in bewilderment at my statement, "I wish I had a cool enough background to make a career out of it!"

Before Max could respond, the professor halted in and began rambling as everyone scrambled to take notes.

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...

"A whole essay for homework along with a current event project? Man, that's rough for a first day!" Max outburst at the end of class.

"Hey, I'm sure it could be worse!" I tried to ease and it seemed to work on the annoyed teen.

"True, but it was still pretty rough for a first day."

After parting our separate ways, I headed to the library to get some information on my assignment. My next class wasn't for another half an hour so I pulled out my laptop from my bag and began working on my essay. Before I even finished my outline, I noticed my class was soon to start. Packing up my belongings, I headed toward the building to my next class.

I decided to enroll in Philosophy purely on a recommendation from a few peers. I had a knack for arguing and thinking beyond the text to the point where my teachers refused to call on my hand risen questions. Some could call it a natural and rude paranoia but most others saw it as a delightful sense of logic. Regardless, a ball is a ball no matter how you spin it.

The classroom itself looked less like a college lecture hall and more like a high school club room. Chairs were lined in a circle in the center of the room and the instructor began scribbling down words on the whiteboard. I took a seat and began to copy down what was being written. This posed as a problem seeing that the language the teacher wrote hardly resembled English.

'It appears he must have failed his penmanship class in community college.' I thought to myself.

"Excuse me," I whispered to the teen next to me, "do you know what that word is? The one after 'belonged to the'."

"Eradicable" he stated in an even tone without glancing at me. I immediately noticed the yellow in his orbs that seemed to shine like the malevolent gleam of a cat's eye.

Before I was caught gawking, I quickly turned my head back to the board and continued writing whatever the professor wrote.

We went around the circle to introduce ourselves and I found the boy's name to be Ray. He seemed to have quite an open mind though. While the class was given out a handout on the Red Scarce, he collectively brought the Anti-Communist argument on likable terms though he may have disagreed with them.

At the end of class, I found myself catching up with Ray before he escaped the classroom.

"That's a pretty good sense of thinking you have there," I began trying to gain his attention, "Who would have known Shakespeare could be so politically biased?"

"It's all up to interpretation," he responded slinging his bag around his shoulders.

"Well, I don't know if I could have come up with that," I stated, "this is going to be a fun semester. Well, see you around!" I began to head the other direction until Ray halted my actions.

"Hey," I imedietly froze in my tracks.

"Yeah?"

Ray smiled slightly, "Thanks, I'm looking forward to this semester too." We exchanged looks and parted our separate ways.

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...

"Sophiaaaaaaaa" Hilary groaned turning in her bed for what seemed like the umpteenth time, "It's like, 11:00 at night, don't you think you should finish up your project and just go to bed?"

"I want to at least finish my annotations and begin a bit of my reading." Reasoning didn't seem to work to well with Hilary as I caught on quickly. She adjusted in her bed yet again and huffed a breath of annoyance. I couldn't much blame her though. Deciding to postpone my job search and shopping until tomorrow, I've been practically glued to the desk since the end of my Philosophy class.

Sighing, I pushed up my glasses that I switched to after my contacts began to irritate my eyes and closed my laptop. I then grabbed my coat and keys and turned off the light as I left.

A muffled, "thank you," could be heard from the opposite side of the door. I rolled my eyes and proceeded to tiptoe down the stairs to my car. I figured I might as well find some coffee shop that's open late and grab a cup. This would at least give Hilary some time to doze off before I began my work again. Maybe she was a heavy sleeper once she fell under the spell of drowsiness.

I paused outside my car and sighed.

"I don't think you're a dinosaur," I mumbled to myself as I unlocked and entered the vehicle.

I drove around for a good ten minutes searching for some form of caffeinated shop that was open this late. Practically giving up, I made one last left before finding a small store with a large "OPEN" sign and a picture of a coffee cup. Relieved, I drove up into the parking lot and exited my car. There were surprisingly quite a few customers inhabiting the shop.

The door opened with a ring of a bell and I was greeted with a foreign sounding, "Welcome" from one of the employees. After only glancing at the menu, I decided my order.

As I walked up to the register, I greeted the man. I was about to open my mouth to speak my order when a ring from the door was heard. Naturally, I ignored this and proceeded with my motion.

In a perfect world, I would have ordered my order, gotten it, and left.

Too bad life's not perfect.

Before I could utter my words, I was nudged out of the way of the cash register as some man pushed me out of my spot.

"Mario, make it my usual. And quickly, I'm in a hurry." The husky voice stated in a murmur. My brows knitted together as I cleared my throat.

"Excuse me, _sir_, but I believe I was before you?" I said trying to restrain my frustration. He glared at me as if to burn a hole through my head. This made my blood boil.

"Um, Mr. Hiwatari, the lady was indeed in front of you." The employee named Mario practically whimpered, obviously afraid of the figure in front of him. The man glared at Mario then back at me. I began to study his features in case I was to run into the creature again.

His bold paint on his cheeks stood out the most along with his two shaded hair. You could practically see the fire of anger that flowed in his dark eyes. Though he appeared as an intimidating man, I say him nothing more than a child, a teen at best.

"Yes, and I was about to order the number 2." I gritted never faltering my gaze. Mario quickly shuffled to make up some order.

"You've got a _lot_ of guts snapping back at me." He spat out in a low tone.

"I never realized it's a skill to act decent." I responded with the same intensity. Our glaring contest continued until a meek voice broke our gaze.

"Ma'am, y-your order is ready." The employee shakily muttered. I finally broke my gaze with the boy to look at Mario. My expression softened as I gently took the order from him.

"Thank you sir," I politely stated. Glaring back at the rude figure and made my way toward the exit.

"What's your name?" He called in a demanding voice.

"That's classified to people worth my time." The bell rang signaling my exit as I unlocked my car and drove off.

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Back at my dorm, I found Hilary asleep. Taking a sip of my coffee, I opened up my laptop and continued my project.

Somehow, the argument of standards for politeness seemed to make it's way into my essay. I begrudgingly slapped my fingers on the keys and took another sip of my coffee. The incident at the coffee shop irritated me more than I thought. In hopes to calm my nerves a bit, I tried to think of the positives of the situation. Good news is, I'd never have to see that kid again.

I glanced at the cup I recently purchased and sighed.

"Arrogant jerk."

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**Again, I appreciate you reading this far! **

**Truth be told, I haven't been into Beyblade for quite some time. My main focus is to keep the characters "in character". After that' I'll try to incorporate the Beyblade plot a bit into the story (basically, the Hitiwari family and what not, not like retelling the story). **

**Also, I will use the "American" names when writing this story. I first got interested in Beyblade when I read the comics. In the comics, the American names are used so that is how I identified the characters.**

**Also, a special thanks to VeekaIzhanez, erikamakino, and JoiZ. D for reviewing on my story. I'm glad you find it unique and enjoy it.**

**Your opinions are appreciated!**

**~PLB**


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